


Zukaang Week 2018

by bizukos (ladyvcngeance)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bisexual Zuko (Avatar), Drabble Collection, Fluff and Humor, Gay Aang, Gay Zuko (Avatar), LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Character of Color, M/M, One Shot Collection, Pansexual Aang, Post-Canon, Zukaang - Freeform, ZukaangWeek2018
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-09-27 11:49:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17161469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyvcngeance/pseuds/bizukos
Summary: A series of drabbles for the prompts for Zukaang Week 2018.Prompt 1; Teashop, modern AU.Prompt 2; Disguises, canon verse.Prompt 3; Dancing, canon verse.Prompt 4; Duty vs. Love.





	1. Teashop

He had recently had his 20th birthday and it was without much joy he decided to take a day off from his studies and finally use the coupon his foster father Gyatso had given him.

“A cup of fresh brew will clear your mind.” Gyatso had told him and given him the card.

With an elegant oriental font, it said _The Jasmine Dragon_ with colors of gold and crimson spread over a dragon who zigzagged around the letters.

Aang thanked him with an embrace. He didn’t ask for much but to spend the day with Gyatso, but the man was growing old, his whole life showed on his face and Aang knew he had lived a rich life full of laughter, good memories and wisdom. Aang knew wisdom sometimes came from pain and experiences that maybe his foster father didn’t always want to talk about.

“I wish I could join you… It’s not always a man turns 20.” The mustached man said and rubbed his back. “I’ll promise we’ll do something together.”

Aang only smiled as he packed his bag with some of his most valuable possessions.

“I’d like that.” He said before hugging Gyatso goodbye and heading out.

 

He figured he could continue on a page of his book at the teashop and go back home to his pets and help Gyatso with whatever he needed.

The shop was homely, he felt safe when the aromas hit his nose, a certain calmness invaded him as he inhaled the natural scents.

Aang sat himself down at first to get his bag off his back. He was surprised at how much he enjoyed the teashop. The talkative voices, the scent of the teas that were brewing. Aang was ready to get his coupon and book out when he saw him.

There he was. Dark haired, a bit mysterious and sometimes he used to see him at campus. Rarely talking to anybody but himself but it wasn’t much talking but incoherent mumblings. Aang had forgotten his name but he had heard it being thrown around when his peers weren’t referring to him as ‘the guy’.

He works here? Aang would have never imagined. He didn’t seem the type who would enjoy such harmonic environment.

But one thing Aang couldn’t help but to notice was the remarkable burn mark that almost covered half of his face.

 

For a moment Aang thought they locked eyes which caused a stir for him. He almost dropped his book and his bookmark fell down to the floor.

“Ah, damn it…” He mumbled and suddenly heard a light chuckle.

The dark haired one had gotten from being behind the counter to help the slightly confused Aang.

“You dropped your bookmark.” He said before getting down to his knees and pick it up.

Aang mumbled something in agreement and looked down on the floor and tried to reach for the piece of paper but the dark haired one was quicker.

“Here you go.” He said and was now on his feet. Staggering over Aang. “What are you reading?”

Aang couldn’t believe it. He was talking to him. He didn’t strike as a social person and his voice didn’t seem to carry any enthusiasm of talking but his eyes said something different. Well, his one good eye.

“Uh, A Brief History of Time by…”

“By Stephen Hawking.” He finished Aang’s sentence. “Sounds cool. You want to order something?”

Aang handed him the coupon to which made the dark-haired young man smile.

“You know what? I’ll make you something very special and I’ll be your server.  My name is Zuko.” He gave Aang a warm smile.

Aang couldn’t see himself but he was sure he was blushing when a warm flush centered around his cheeks.

“I like that.”

And he liked the sound of that name too, Zuko.


	2. Disguises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of activity but here comes the second prompt which is Disguises. Aang is doing Zuko's Kyoshi makeup. Why? I don't know. We don't need a reason for the gays.

” Don’t put that shit in my eye.” Zuko closed his left eye in reaction to the paint Aang was putting on him. “I still don’t see why this is necessary.”

Without losing focus of his work Aang shrugged and with a dapper smile continued painting the red lines on Zuko’s face.

“You have to feel and be the part of a Kyoshi. Their warrior paint represents courage, adversity and…”

“I still don’t think all of this is needed.” Zuko complained. He had been sitting still for what felt like hours for Aang to just finish the red and black colors. “It won’t look on the scar.” Zuko sounded too bitter.

“Don’t be silly Zuko.” The Avatar made his infamous crooked smile that was irresistible by everyone including the Fire Lord. “You’ll be the best looking Kyoshi warrior of this century.”

Zuko wasn’t sure if he believed it but he couldn’t deny it sounded nice hearing that from Aang. Who knew the Avatar would be an incredible jewelry maker and a good face painter.

“Oh, wait.” Aang’s eyebrows tensed up. “I missed a spot, I think I messed up.”

“Where? Give me a mirror. Where!?” Zuko was ready to pull himself up but Aang held onto his arm.

“Right there…” Aang leaned in on Zuko’s face and kissed the tip of his nose and deliberately smudged the white makeup on Zuko.

“Aang!” Zuko said in surprise. “I’ll pull that beard off of you if you try that again…” Zuko held his hand over his mouth to hide bashful smile and stop his chuckling. It was still clear noticeable for Aang. The redness of Zuko’s cheeks that spread to his good ear.

“I hope you will.” Aang kissed Zuko’s hand that was the only barrier between their lips. “But I don’t think you will, sifu Hotman.” Aang continued to tease him.

It was true, Zuko wouldn’t but he wouldn’t mind take a fist full of white paint and wipe it across Aang’s face and he wouldn’t mind kissing off that smirk on Aang’s face. Or both.

“Before I change my mind, finish this and then I’ll get to you.”

“Alright, sifu Hotman. Fire Lord Kyoshi might have a better chance catching the Avatar than Fire Lord Zuko.”

“Alright! You asked for it!” Zuko said and jumped over to Aang’s side but still Aang was quicker.

“You are ruining the ultimate disguise!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I appreciate all the comments and kudos my dyslexic ass can get. I appreciate constructive criticism as well!


	3. Dancing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aang teaches Zuko something about dancing

” I don’t dance.” The Fire Lord said with crossed arms and a stern look on his face as the Avatar floated around him.

“What do you mean you don’t dance?” Aang asked with a devilish smile meant to tease the already reddish young monarch. “Everyone can dance!”

Zuko, still blushing as clear as day, looked away and mumbled something unintelligibly. There was no music to get into to the rhythm to, but it didn’t matter for Aang. He created the music inside of him and he moved smoothly and with ease.

“I just… Don’t.”

“Take my hand.” Aang offered. “Follow my lead. You’ll do amazing. You got it in you.”

Zuko hesitated but no one was there to look at them. They were all alone in inside a low-lit room with not a single soul bothering them. Zuko took Aang’s hand. Aang might have been younger than Zuko by 4 years but it didn’t show, not anymore.

Aang was staggering in height now and he took Zuko’s both hands and hummed an old air nomad tune as he led Zuko with his movements.

“What’s that?” Zuko asked, looking down his feet to make sure he didn’t make one single mistake or made one wrong step.

“An old air nomad lullaby. I don’t remember many of them, but we used to hum them to the newborns in their nursery.” Aang remembered fondly. Some of the best memories of his old life.

Zuko smiled. He tried to hum with Aang even if he didn’t get it all right. He liked the sound of it, especially when it came from Aang.

“You’re doing great, sifu hotman.” Aang teased.

“Don’t call me that…” Zuko blushed and pressed his lips together. Without a warning he felt Aang’s lips on his. A smooth transition and a warm one that took him by surprise, but he gave in to it.

Zuko rested his head on Aang’s shoulder and they kept moving to the sound of Aang’s gentle voice. All night come to and end but Zuko wished for this one to continue a bit longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for a short chapter. I felt for some short fluff. Give kudos or commnents if you like. I appreciate all of them


	4. Duty vs Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An Avatar is encouraged to love but what if his duties to the world outweighs his true love?  
> The Fire Lord is bound to his people but he can't help to think what if.

Aang looked out the distance but his eyes met nothing but miles and miles of water. The sound of the ocean was terrifying, but it also had a calming effect on him. It was speaking to him. A language so beautiful and daring and it reminded him of the mistakes of his life, the errors he has made to make the world, a world he didn’t know or fully understand, a better place.

Hundreds of thoughts were racing in his mind, every single one struggling to make its own point and his own inner voice was drowning. Drowning in an ocean of confusion and self-doubt.

“Aang? Are you alright?” That voice. That familiar voice once had hit him with shivers down his spine but now it was for other reasons than that.

“Uh, Zuko? Why are you here? Why aren’t you celebrating with the diplomats?” Aang asked. He hoped Zuko couldn’t tell but he was happy seeing him joining him.

“I was going to ask you the same thing. It doesn’t feel right celebrating without the Avatar.” The Fire Lord said with a smile that melted hearts. It was his special smile. Reserved for close friends and loved ones.

“I couldn’t think. The music… It’s…”

“Too loud? Ha, never in a hundred years would I guess that coming out of you Aang.” Zuko leaned close to him but he quickly realized the internal struggle inside Aang. He was familiar with it himself. “What’s wrong?”

“I was just thinking. Me being the Avatar, the one to restore the balance and keep, somewhat, peace between everyone. What if I lose myself in the process? I know I could keep true to my own ideals once and save the world but what if I become the one thing, I swore I’d never be?”

Without any further saying, Zuko laid his hand on Aang’s shoulder, he pressed the palm of his hand into his shoulder and gave it a rub.

“You make your own path, Aang. The world is cruel and unforgiving to people like us.” He chuckled. “You are the Avatar and I the Fire Lord and we have our duties, but people will always find a way to hate us. That’s just how they are. Whatever we do and how compassionate we think we act, people will be like this.”

The breeze touched them and there was something in Zuko’s words. They were only human at the end. Humans who had to put their own people’s needs ahead of their own.

“I just think the world hates me even more.”

“Hates you? After all you’ve done? I’ll understand if they still hate me but you? Aang, you saved mankind from a faith no one could ever imagine, and you did it without losing yourself.” Zuko sounded astonished as he was proud of Aang. How far he had come from being stuck in an iceberg to this. The co-founder of Republic City.

“You don’t think I should have killed your father? I know lot’s of people think I should have.”

Aang’s word struck Zuko. The mention of his father was not something he saw coming but Aang delivered it so calmly and with a straight face as if he lost all of his inner emotions.

“Death… Is something he wanted. He wanted martyrdom but you gave him a faith considered worse than death for him.” Zuko let Aang go but he didn’t leave his sight. He moved closer to the monk. “For hundreds of years no one took the ancient air nomads’ wisdom seriously because we believed it to be relics of a past. A past that we thought had taught us of what it meant to be strong and what it meant to be weak.” Zuko paused to exhale. “But that day you restored your own nation. You taught us that the teachings of your people had not in fact left this world.”

It wasn’t words Aang wanted to hear but what he perhaps needed to hear. He was proud of his heritage and roots, but he felt lonely. His friends and family were gone but Zuko was adamant that Aang had cherished their memories when he did what he did.

“I guess you’re right…”

“I know I’m right.” He could come across as stubborn and perhaps even arrogant, but his delivery always made Aang crack a smile and warm him tenderly. “And I know one thing very well is that when it seems like the whole world hates you it’s nothing anymore. The world has hated some of history’s greatest and worshipped some of the vilest.” Zuko looked over at Aang who’s eyes were still fixated on the ocean in front of them.

“I want you to know that the world hated me too.” Zuko hoped to see a glimpse of Aang’s eyes.

“We’ll get used to it when we have to choose duty over love.” Aang was unmoved. “I sometimes wish I could have been born someone else.”

“Then I’d wish that on myself too. We could probably have met and befriended each other in different circumstances.” Zuko leaned his face closer to Aang’s and smiled. Hoping Aang would finally look at him.

And he did and he responded with the same type of kindness.

“Life wouldn’t be the same without you, sifu hotman.”

At any other moment Zuko would have rolled his eyes at the title Aang had given him but this wasn’t that kind of moment.

“Wherever you go, I go with you.”

And they embraced. Aang held onto Zuko as if he was afraid letting go would mean goodbye forever. He needed something like Zuko. Someone who could understand the struggle like Zuko did. Teasing and comments meant nothing in comparison to their more vulnerable moments together.

“The founding of Republic City will go to history.” Zuko said to Aang. His golden sparked with enthusiasm. “It’s Omashu but with a happier ending, it’s…”

“Roku and Sozin before one of them became a warmongering fool.” Aang laughed when he said that and Zuko let it be. Aang’s happiness meant so much to him. For so many years he had been ashamed of their nations history together and he was going to support Aang to the end of times.

But what caused both turmoils’ was what would that love had been hadn’t their duties kept them away from each other? Zuko went to bed that night thinking of Aang and him, in different circumstances and a different time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if it feels to rushed. I wrote this before going to bed lol


End file.
